This invention relates to a skateboard, and more particularly, a skateboard having a novel brake assembly.
Skateboarding has become a popular sport with teenagers, sub-teenagers and also some of the more sportsminded adults. In learning how to ride a skateboard, and even after a person becomes proficient in the use of a skateboard, it often becomes necessary to stop the board abruptly to avoid danger, as for example, when an impediment is suddenly thrust into the board's path of movement.
The only way to stop skateboards in use today, while the rider is still mounted on the board, is to drag a foot along the ground surface or dismount and let the board contact an obstruction in the path of movement. Neither method is safe.
Accordingly, in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,566, issued Aug. 23, 1977, I disclosed a skateboard with one or more brakes, which can be actuated by the foot of the mounted user to stop the skateboard. The brake assembly includes a pivotal member wholly within the confines of the board having a rubber stop for engaging the ground surface when the member is tilted by the heel of the shoe of the skater, to safely slow the board to a stop. This arrangement is somewhat awkward to actuate in that the front or balancing foot of the rider is used to depress the brake assembly.